USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 33
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Ross Elliott was born in Hood County. Texas, son of G. W. and Alice (Compton ) Elliott. His father was born in Hill County and is member of a family of early settlers in Hood County. He lived in Hood County until 1905, and for the past fifteen years the Elliotts have been residents of Stephens County.
Ross Elliott therefore belongs to the older group of citizens of Stephens County, though still a young man hardly thirty-three. He was educated in the noted Add-Ran College of Thorp Springs and in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where he took his work in engineering. He became man- ager of the Stephens County Abstract Com- pany in the early part of 1918, and has there- fore borne the heavy burdens of a growing business during the most active years of the oil development in and around Breckenridge. He has himself acquired some interests in oil production, and has been especially active and public spirited in building up the city and its resources.
Mr. Elliott married Miss Katie Mattie Liles, of Breckenridge. Their four children are Lillian Maxine, Ross Liles. Alice Kate and Betty Elliott.
J. R. MACEO is the resident partner of The Audit Company of Texas, accountants and income tax experts, and Mr. Maceo from his long training and experience in the pro- fession of accountancy has helped give this company a standing and reputation as one of the foremost of its kind in the Southwest.
Mr. Maceo was born at Matanzas, Cuba, March 22, 1885, oldest son of Jose Bestardo and Augusta Elida (Herrera) Maceo. His parents are now deceased. His father died in 1900 at Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and his mother in 1910. The father in the early eighties spent about a year at Key West and Miami, Flor- ida, and his profession was that of a struc- tural engineer. He was a man of college education. Of his five children two sons and two daughters are living.
J. R. Maceo was sent to England to com- plete his education and was trained for the
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profession of accountant there. In February, 1920, he located at Fort Worth and became a partner of Robert F. Purvis, income tax expert, and the present company, succeeding the Robert F. Purvis & Company, occupy an advisory position to several of the leading citi- zens and business corporations of Texas in general and Fort Worth in particular. Mr. Maceo, though a resident of Fort Worth only a year or two, has identified himself in a pub- lic spirited manner with everything affecting the welfare of the city. He is treasurer of All Saints Hospital and a vestryman in Trin- ity Episcopal Church, is a member of Fort Worth Lodge No. 148, Free & Accepted Masons, the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
In Trinity Episcopal Church, April 6, 1921, Mr. Maceo married Miss Elsa Dreyer, of St. Louis, Missouri.
JUDGE STEPHEN M. BRADLEY'S active mem- bership in the Denton County bar dates back forty years. His numerous clients speak highly of his professional abilities, and in civil practice he has appeared in nearly all the important courts of the state. Judge Bradley has practiced law with an unusual devotion to his work, and only for a short time filled the office of county judge. Neverthe- less he has been a well known figure in the public life of his section of the state for many years.
The Bradleys have been factors in good American citizenship through many genera- tions, ever since their Welsh ancestor came to this country and founded a home near Lynch- burg, Virginia, in Colonial times. Judge Bradley's grandfather, Stephen Bradley, was born at Lynchburg in 1800 and moved over the mountains into Eastern Tennessee near Clinton, Anderson County. He had an exten- sive plantation, worked by slaves, but finally became convinced of the evil of the institu- tion and abandoned slave labor several years before the Civil war. He lived out his life in the community around Clinton and died there while the war was in progress, at the age of eighty-eight. He reared a numerous family of sons and daughters, two of the sons, Timothy R. and Samuel, having military records. The sons Burrell, Lynch and Sam- uel, spent all their lives as farmers near Clin- ton, Tennessee, Lynch reaching a ripe old age. Another son, James, moved west and died at Poteau, Oklahoma. One daughter. Mary, became the wife of Mr. White and lived in
Illinois, where she died. Another daughter, Maggie, was married and died in Tennessee.
Timothy R. Bradley, father of Judge Brad- ley, was born in 1820 in Anderson County, Tennessee. He was liberally educated and for a number of years taught school. At the beginning of the Mexican war he volunteered and was with General Scott's army on the march from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico and at the storming of Chepultepec he was shot through the arm. He refused a pen- sion for his wounds until after the Civil war, when he accepted it. When the war between the states broke out he proved a zealous leader of the Confederacy, raised a company of cav- alry in Anderson County, and was captain of his organization in Gen. Joe Wheeler's Cav- alry throughout the struggle. His company was with Zollicoffer's army at Mill Spring. Kentucky, when the general losth is life. He was in the battle of Chickamauga in August. 1863, was in the Atlanta campaign, and ac- companied General Wheeler in one of the final raids of the war into Tennessee. He was with Wheeler's command when the final surrender came. For all the arduous service of the Confederate cavalryman he escaped wounds and capture.
At the end of the war he had lost the cause for which he had fought, his wife was dead. and his property confiscated. While he was in the army he was sued for a large amount of money and a judgment for many thousands of dollars obtained against him because of damages done by his company in the service. The judgment was levied against all his prop- erty and he was rendered penniless. In this state of affairs he had no heart to return to his old home district and he determined to seek a new country and new friends, and thus came to Texas.
It was about two years after the close of the war that he reached Texas and settled at Grapevine, where he bought land in the Cross Timber section of Tarrant County and thereafter devoted his energies to farming. With the passage of time he recovered in a large measure his spirit and again became the man he was in early life. His family joined him in Texas and all his children were reared there. He never sought public office or pub- lic service and was a devout member of the Baptist Church. He died in January, 1885. leaving four children.
Captain Bradley's wife was Turzy Taylor. a native of Anderson County, Tennessee, who died in 1863, during the war. Besides Judge
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Bradley there was a son, George, who died on reaching manhood. The daughter Mar- garet is Mrs. B. W. Edgell and lives in Kan- sas City. The youngest child, Bettie, married F. E. Chenoweth and died in Tarrant County.
Stephen M. Bradley was born June 16. 1852, in Eastern Tennessee, and was a boy of fifteen when he joined his father in Texas. In the meantime he had attended district school and after coming to Texas finished his literary education in the Masonic Seminary at Grapevine. Some of his early experiences were identified with farming, and even vet he takes a keen interest in agricultural affairs. After leaving the seminary he taught school several years, that being a means by which he prepared for the legal profession. He also raised a cotton crop, tending the field nights and mornings before school. His last teaching was done at old Garden Valley, near pre ent Roanoke. Judge Bradley read law under Judge Piner and also in offices at Den- ton, where he has been a resident since 1880. He was admitted to the bar in 1882 in open court. His chief examiners were E. C. Smith and Reuben Bates, and he was licensed by Judge Potter. and all these old time attorneys, it is believed, are now deceased.
Judge Bradley opened his office at Denton. His first case was a civil trial before a jus- tice at Grapevine. The greater part of his work has been in a general civil practice. After three years as a lawyer he was elected county judge of Denton County, succeeding Judge Tom Yates, who had served a brief interval after the retirement of Tudge Scruggs. Tudge Bradley presided over the county court for eight years. This was an era of real con- structive progress in the county. The court house was built at a cost of $152,000. though that was a period when public opinion had not risen to the point of approving large sums of money for road building and other improve- ments that now take so much of the time of the county court.
On leaving the bench Judge Bradley re- turned to the law and is still in active prac- tice. He also combines the law with the pleasures and profits of farming. He has a farm adjacent to the corporation limits of Denton and his residence stands on a site that is one of the highest in the county. His farm produces a large amount of fruit and other products in season and his life is one of de- lightful independence.
Judge Bradley was born a democrat and cast his first presidential vote for Samuel J.
Tilden in 1876, and has been at the polls at every national election since. In 1892 he was campaign manager in Denton County for George Clark in the notable campaign of that year. At one time he opposed Senator Bai- ley's aspirations, but supported him in 1920 because he believed the former Texas senator represented the best expression of democratic principles. Judge Bradley is not only a den- ocrat but a thorough and wholesome Amer- ican and had a son who spent a year and a half in France in some of the hardest fighting of the battlefront.
In Denton County in December, 1884, Judge Bradley married Miss Nannie Allen. Her father. Richard M. Allen, came to Denton County at a time when none of his later con- temporaries could remember, and during the fifties he was county surveyor. His later years were spent as a farmer. He was survived by two daughters. Mrs. Bradley and Mrs. Thomas Wakefield, both now deceased. Tudge Brad- ley lost his wife May 1, 1910, when she was forty-eight years of age. Of their children. Lillian is a graduate of the North Texas Nor- mal. formerly was a teacher but is now con- nected with the Dallas Telephone Company. George is the soldier son, who was trained in the artillery. and had eighteen months of expe- rience in France. Since the war he has taken up the role of farming. Grover, the other son, is now an enlisted man in the United States Infantry with the Regular army. Mamie, the youngest child, is a student in the Denton Normal.
Judge Bradley was made a Mason at Grape- vine in 1875. He is a past master of Denton Lodge and is widely known among the Masons of the state as former grand master. He was nominated for that honor by Hon. B. B. Paddock of Fort Worth. As chairman of the committee on correspondence he compiled a handbook of information on Masonry in December, 1920, published by the Grand Lodge. Judge Bradley has been a member of the Baptist Church since 1872. His friends say that he has never used profanity and his life has been an exemplary one in many respects.
THOMAS NEAL SKILES. Through a period of many years the enterprise of the late Thomas Neal Skiles was reflected in substan- tial and constructive work as a farmer and stockman in Denton County. The generous homestead he built up and the industry he
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established is now most capably managed by Mrs. Skiles with the aid of her sons.
Mr. Skiles was born near Center, Ralls County, Missouri, December 30, 1850, a son of Joseph L. and Jane (Neal) Skiles. Ac- cording to the best information available his grandfather was an Irishman, and spent his active life as a farmer at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Two of his sons, Clem and Thomas, also came to Dallas County, Texas, and spent their lives there. Joseph L. Skiles was born near Bowling Green, Kentucky, grew up with a fair country school education, and as a young man went to Ralls County, Missouri, where he married, Jane Neal being a native of the county. He remained engaged in farm- ing in that state until about 1855, when he brought his family to Texas in company with other settlers. They located near Dallas, the pioneer home of the Skiles family being about a mile and a half from that then frontier town. After a few years Joseph L. Skiles took his family back to Missouri and to Ralls County, where he lived until his death, in 1867, at the age of forty-seven. Somewhat later Mrs. Joseph L. Skiles returned to Texas with her children, and lived in the Richard- son community and died in Dallas in 1911, at the age of eighty-five. Joseph L. Skiles during the war between the states was a team- ster in the Confederate army. He was a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church. Their children were: James H., a lawyer, who died at Dallas ; Thomas Neal; John William, of Denton ; Mary, who became the wife of G. H. Blewett, of Denton; and Richard T., of Dallas.
Thomas Neal Skiles had few memories of the early residence of the family in Dallas County. He grew up and acquired his com- mon school education in Southern Missouri, and as a youth of nineteen he again came to Texas, in company with other settlers who drove overland. One of those who accom- panied him is Mr. Arthur, still a resident of Denton. It was the years immediately follow- ing the Civil war that Thomas Neal Skiles became identified with Texas. He did some prairie breaking, and he also engaged in the freighting business with ox teams from the pine districts of Eastern Texas to Dallas County. After his marriage he settled near Richardson and operated a gin for three years, when, on selling his interests, he moved to Denton County and engaged in the cattle
business on the line of Denton and Wise coun- ties, at the old Stony postoffice.
Securing the lease of a large tract, he ran the S bar brand for ten years, and his herd made him one of the widely known men in the business. On changing his location he moved his residence to Denton, and from that city operated his ranch seven miles west of town, on Hickory Creek. He remained active in the management of his business affairs until overtaken by death. While he grew most of his stock, he also bought and fed, and was a modest shipper out of the locality.
He was satisfied with the role of a quiet citizen, without leadership in politics, but always voted his sentiments as a democrat. While in Denton he served as an alderman, and was a member of the school board both in the country and in the city. He was of a quiet and reserved disposition, was affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, and he and Mrs. Skiles were of the Cumberland Presby- terian faith, later becoming members of the Presbyterian Church of the U. S. A.
On November 7, 1878, Mr. Skiles married Miss Mary Alice Huffhines. Her father, John Huffhines, came to Texas in 1854 from Simpson County, Kentucky, where he was born. He settled in the Richardson locality of Dallas County, and spent the rest of his years there as a farmer. Seven or eight years after coming to Texas he entered the Con- federate army and was in many campaigns. but never wounded. He always voted as a democrat, and was a member of the Baptist Church. After coming to Dallas County Mr. Huffhines married Serilda Jane Tarrant, of the same family for whom Tarrant County. Texas, was named. Her father, William Tarrant. came from' Warren County, near Louisville, Kentucky, to Texas in 1854. John Huffhines died in 1905, and his widow is still living at Richardson. They had ten children : Mrs. Skiles, who was born November 7, 1859 ; W. E. Huffhines, of Krum, Texas; Ewing. of Krum; Jennie, wife of John W. Query, of Dallas; James I., of Denton; Ida, wife of H. W. Greer, of Richardson; Edward N., of Dallas County ; William Ross, of Kaufman County ; Earl, of Richardson ; and Lillie, wife of J. W. Blewett, of Richardson.
Thomas Neal Skiles died April 6, 1900, when in his fiftieth year. He was then in the full enjoyment of the success which his ac- cumulated energies had gained for him, and his
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name and good deeds are continued through his children. Of these children the oldest is Charles Henry, a farmer near Denton, who married Pearl Wilkins and has two daugh- ters, named Lois and Jane. The next child, Lena May, lives with her mother on the ranch. Carl Adolphus, of Denton, married Viola Herrin, and their several children are Duaine Herrin, Weldon Huffhines and C. A. Joseph Okle is a farmer with his mother. Birdie Lee is also at the home in Denton. Jack Lawrence is a veterinary surgeon, was trained for a soldier at Camp McArthur, went overseas with the One Hundred and Seventh Engineering Corps in the Thirty-second Divi- sion, and was with the Army of Occupation in Germany. Hugh Erwin, the next son, was also trained at Camp McArthur, but was never ordered overseas. He is a jeweler and watchmaker by trade. Lola Jane, a graduate of the North Texas Normal College, is a teacher at Jayton, Texas. Herschel Neal, the youngest, is at home.
With the assistance of her sons Mrs. Skiles is operating the ranch west of Denton on Hickory Creek, and they have continued its profitable features as a farm and stock ranch. One prominent feature of the farm is a herd of registered Ayrshires, and this herd has proved its availability as a dairy breed well suited to southwestern conditions. The milk from the Skiles dairy tests regularly 4.4, and is marketed at Denton through the Dairymen's Association, of which the Skiles family are members.
J. WILKIE TALBERT. The real estate devel- oper in any community occupies a very im- portant position with reference to its people and the expansion of all of the business inter- ests centered there, but when his operations are transacted in a section which is constantly augmented by new arrivals, attracted to it by the bringing in of productive oil wells, his work approaches a dignity not easily over- estimated. Wichita Falls is one of the cities of the Southwest which has felt and is feeling the remarkable effects of the great oil boom of the Burkburnett fields. As this boom is a legitimate one, the expansion is healthy and is steadily growing, and the need has arisen for the services of realtors of experience and capa- bility to provide proper homes and business sites for the various people and industries which are thronging to the county, as well as to the city, from all over the country. One of the alert and aggressive young men who
has found in this line the proper and congenial expression for his business talents and nat- ural sagacity is J. Wilkie Talbert, with offices in the Commerce Building.
J. Wilkie Talbert was born at Arcadia, Louisiana, a son of John and Ruth (Capers) Talbert. On his paternal side Mr. Talbert is a grandson of Rev. John Talbert, a Baptist minister, who was engaged in professional work in Louisiana for nearly sixty years, and during the war between the North and the South, served as chaplain in the Confederate army. The name is of English origin, but the family has long been established in this coun- try. John Talbert, father of J. Wilkie Tal- bert, founded the first bank of Arcadia, Lou- isiana, but in the panic of 1895 his institu- tion was injured, and he went on the road as a traveling salesman for the famous Harga- dine-McKittrick Dry Goods Company of Saint Louis, Missouri, and developed into one of the most widely-known and popular men of his calling in the South.
On the maternal side J. Wilkie Talbert is a kinsman of the late Bishop Capers of South Carolina, one of the great Episcopal digni- taries of the state, and father of the present Bishop Capers of the diocese of West Texas. Mr. Talbert's maternal grandfather was the late Colonel Dick Capers, a native of Missis- sippi, who came to Homer, Louisiana, several years prior to the outbreak of the war of the '60s, assisted in founding the town, and estab- lished its first store. When war broke out he espoused the cause of the South, organized and commanded as colonel the Fourth Lou- isiana Cavalry of the Confederate army, and both as a soldier and citizen was a man of real distinction in his day.
J. Wilkie Talbert attended the schools of Arcadia, Lake Charles and Shreveport, Lou- isiana. At the time of the opening of the Comanche Indian Reservation in Oklahoma in 1901 the family moved to Oklahoma, locating at Frederick, and from there Mr. Talbert later went to Amarillo, Texas, locating at Wichita Falls in 1914, which city has since continued to be his home. He founded a real estate business, and had developed it to very important proportions, but disposed of his interests in the spring of 1918 in order to enter the military service of his country. His first training was received in the Officers Training Camp of the Texas National Guard, cavalry division, and later he went into the infantry training camp in Texas, and was
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slated for an officer's commission when the armistice was signed.
Previous to entering the service Mr. Tal- bert had been very active, from April, 1917, in the various war organizations, and was pub- licity chairman of Wichita County Fourth Liberty Loan Committee; served as local chairman of the Fosdick Commission, engaged in war camp community service ; had charge of the "Smilage" campaign, and was in all of the Red Cross, Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and other drives, and few worked any more earnestly or effectively than he.
After receiving his honorable discharge Mr. Talbert returned to Wichita Falls and re- entered the realty field, having since then built up a very valuable connection, and he now handles all kinds of property interests in the city. Having made real estate a special study, he understands how to render a capable and satisfactory service and takes pride in the fact that through his efforts the people of this com- munity are being given an opportunity to secure comfortable homes at prices which are as reasonable as prices of materials and labor will warrant. Mr.
Talbert has recently acquired ownership in the famous Cloverdale Dairy, located one mile southeast of Wichita Falls, where he has a herd of seventy-five cows and conducts a highly successful dairy business. He belongs to the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, and is a charter mem- ber of the Wichita Rotary Club, in both of which organizations he takes a prominent part. Fraternally he is a Knights Templar Mason and an Elk. The influence of such a man as he upon a community can easily be seen. Com- ing into the business of handling the property of the city, with all a young man's enthusiasm, energy and alertness, he is able to see oppor- tunities and develop openings as a man of more years could not. He has the utmost faith in the future of this part of the southwest. and never wearies of proclaiming and proving the right of Wichita Falls to its title "The Wonder City." He is the active vice president of the recently organized Wichita Falls Build- ing and Loan Association, which is incorpo- rated under the laws of Texas, and its author- ized capital is $100,000.
J. L. PENRY earned his early successes as a lawyer in the Texas Panhandle, where most of his clients were ranchers living in some of the unorganized counties of that district. Then for several years he was a member of the Amarillo bar, and is now one of the promi-
nent lawyers of Fort Worth. He makes a specialty of corporation law.
Mr. Penry was born in Mississippi, but has lived in Texas since early youth. His father, Silas B. Penry, was born in Alabama and was a Confederate soldier under General Forrest during the war between the states. Silas Penry was descended from John Penry, who had some interesting connections with old English and early American history. He was author of the Martin Maprelate tracts, which were published in Wales during the sixteenth century and has been credited with an important influence in bringing about the organization of what is known as the Brown- ists in Southern and Southwestern England, who when persecuted and on emigrating to Holland Penry called "Pilgrims and Stran- gers," the first part of which name has fol- lowed this devoted band all through history. John Penry himself was hanged for heresy, though some of his descendants came to America and afterwards fought in the Ameri- can Revolution. Mr. Penry's great-grandfather, Colonel Boylstone, was a colonel in the Revo- lutionary army. He was also of Revolutionary stock on his mother's side. Silas B. Penry, who died in 1913, after the war, moved to Texas and located in Kaufman County and subsequently moved to Dallas, where he was in the mercantile business. Of his seven chil- dren four are still living, J. L. Penry being the next to the youngest.
J. L. Penry acquired a common school edu- cation in Texas, and his first occupation was the printer's trade. He also worked for that distinguished citizen of Dallas, General W. L. Cabell, and studied law, securing his text books from George Clark of Waco, who other- wise supplied encouragement and direction to him in his early efforts toward a legal career.
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